SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

I’m welding a shovel.  On a hill side.  In a native forest.  I’ve got my red gumboots on, and like a four wheel drive Land Cruiser that is finally driven off road after a life-time of shuttling groceries from the tar-sealed mall to the tar-sealed front door, today my red boots are being used in the way their maker originally  intended for them.  I’m standing up to my ankles in sloppy mud.

You see it’s the tenth of the tenth of the tenth. And on this auspicious day over seven thousand groups world-wide are working on assorted positive environmental projects.  Says the 350.org site: “People are digging community gardens, installing solar panels, planting trees and more. We’re sending a clear message to our political leaders: “if we can get to work, so can you!”

We were even supposed to start at ten a.m. today though I couldn’t quite rise to that lofty target.

So what’s our ten ten ten project? We are relocating 500 baby Totara trees (native Kiwi trees that can grow to some of the biggest in the forest) from where they were gainfully sprouting on a recently bull-dozed walking track on private land, down to a farm where they are individually potted up in lush compost.  Soon they will be re-located to near-by land which has been donated to a legal trust and will be regenerated with native bush and later used for mountain bike tracks.

My jobs vary.  I will admit at times today I feel like Jennifer Saunders from Absolutely Fabulous attempting to masquerade as a gardener, though only not even a quarter as glamerous.  First of all I dig out the baby Totara seedlings (which wasn’t as easy as it sounds), then I answer the call for help down in the low-lands in the potting zone.  Once again, potting up Totara seedlings requires some skill and even after a quick lesson from Marla the pro who breezes expertly through her demo, handling the seedlings like a hundred year old mid-wife would handle a newborn, I felt uncoordinated and naive as to the subtle nuances (believe me, there are many) of potting up.  I mean it’s one thing potting up small vegetable seedlings for this year’s garden, but it’s a completely different and all together more important job to pot up something which could one day tower tens of metres high and be too thick for me to get my arms around.  We’re talking land-scape changing stuff here. Eventally I become a sort of ‘orange boy’ of the operation and flit about doing anything that needs doing.  In this role I find my place.  Progress is made.

A  whooping cheer goes up when we realise we’ve reached our 500 target.  Photos are eagerly posed for.  Well I was eager.

By one this afternoon our work is done.  I must mention that local couple Albie and Phillis Burgess donated the tree seedlings plus their time, tools, tractor and support, local company Sollys kindly donated loads of compost, and we donated our time.

I leave with dirt stained hands and rich, dark green cow poo on my red boots.  I feel deeply satisfied about both. I consider taking a photo of my hands but by the time I get home I’m so hungry I must wash them quickly so that I can dine.

Today’s rating: 10/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Check out the story of my first ever ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’

Tags: trees